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<h1><a href="https://archiveofourown.org/works/28610130">Ice Cream And Penguin Plushies</a> by <a class='authorlink' href='https://archiveofourown.org/users/RainbowGirl410/pseuds/RainbowGirl410'>RainbowGirl410</a></h1>

<table class="full">

<tr><td><b>Category:</b></td><td>IT (Movies - Muschietti)</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Genre:</b></td><td>Fluff, M/M, Pining, gays gotta stick together, not dating, not really understanding your sexuality yet</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Language:</b></td><td>English</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Status:</b></td><td>Completed</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Published:</b></td><td>2021-01-07</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Updated:</b></td><td>2021-01-07</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Packaged:</b></td><td>2021-05-13 08:54:12</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Rating:</b></td><td>Not Rated</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Warnings:</b></td><td>Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Chapters:</b></td><td>1</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Words:</b></td><td>4,002</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Publisher:</b></td><td>archiveofourown.org</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Story URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/works/28610130</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Author URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/users/RainbowGirl410/pseuds/RainbowGirl410</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Summary:</b></td><td><div class="userstuff">
              <p>It's a lazy, non-eventful day for Eddie, until Richie shows up and suggests spending the afternoon at the arcade, which Eddie "begrudgingly" agrees to.</p>
            </div></td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Relationships:</b></td><td>Eddie Kaspbrak/Richie Tozier</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Comments:</b></td><td>4</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Kudos:</b></td><td>25</td></tr>

</table>

<a name="section0001"><h2>Ice Cream And Penguin Plushies</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Author's Note:</b><ul class="associations">
      <li>For <a href="https://archiveofourown.org/users/gghostnebula/gifts">ghostnebula (gghostnebula)</a>.</li>



    </ul><blockquote class="userstuff">
      <p>I originally started writing this pretty much exactly a year ago and only finished it now after reading the last few chapters of ghostnebula's 'But The World Keeps Turning' cuz I needed some fluff in my heart, and seeing as she is incapable of writing anything joyful without it ending badly I decided to gift this to her for reference :)</p><p>Enjoy!</p>
    </blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>
  <span>It’s a rather lazy Sunday afternoon in the middle of summer. The sun is shining bright and butterflies are flying around, the grass swaying in the breeze.</span>
  <span><br/>
</span>
  <span>And Eddie is stuck at home. None of his friends have time to meet up today, they’re either out of town or invested in their own things, so Eddie sits on his bed trying to read a book with little success.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>His mind keeps wandering to other places. The thing is, not </span>
  <em>
    <span>all</span>
  </em>
  <span> of his friends are busy, he knows for a fact Richie isn’t, but Eddie has been kind of avoiding him lately, especially when they’re alone. It isn’t necessarily that Eddie doesn’t want to hang out, because he does, he just always feels kind of, weird, around Richie these days and he can’t really put his finger on why. Whenever he’s around Richie, his cheeks heat up just the slightest bit and his heart starts pumping faster. He and Richie have always been very physically close, not that Eddie has anything to say about that part of them really, but every time Richie comes into contact with him now his breath will catch in his throat. And it isn’t the type where he feels like he needs to reach for his inhaler, no, it’s something different.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>It isn’t until he hears a knock on his window that he realizes he’s been staring at the same word while his thoughts race through his head. He’s so startled by the knock he almost drops his book on the floor and he can hear a burst of quiet laughter come from the window. After catching the book and closing it, he looks over to his window and sees Richie’s face beaming at him.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Rolling his eyes, he places the book on his desk and walks over to the window, heart hammering in his throat. Flipping the latch and opening the window, Eddie watches as Richie practically rolls in and lands on the floor with a thud. He winces, but then looks up at Eddie, his smile bigger and brighter than before he’d fallen on the floor.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Hey!”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“What are you doing here Rich?” Eddie asks, turning back to his bed without closing the window, he suspects he’ll be climbing out of it soon enough.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Well, seeing as all our other friends are busy, I thought we could go to the arcade!”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Eddie sighs as he sits down and glances over at his book.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“I got stuff to do Richie.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Yeah? Like what? Staring at your book over there?” Richie is quick to shoot down his very obvious lie, though Richie must have been watching him for a while if he knew he was just staring at it and not reading, right? </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Shuddup…”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>They go silent and Eddie looks down at his toes. At some point, Richie scoots his way over to Eddie and starts tugging on his sock (Eddie’s wearing those fun little shorts remember) like a toddler.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Come on Eddie, it’ll be fun!”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>When Eddie finally glances over at Richie he can see him sporting his best puppy eyes, which totally aren’t that good or anything.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“I’ll buy you ice cream!” Richie says as a last-ditch attempt, and even though Eddie had planned on going with him the whole time he pretends that the promise of ice cream is what breaks him.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Fine,” he sighs, “but I better be home before dinner.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Whatever you say, Spaghettiman!”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Richie jumps to his feet and makes his way to the window while Eddie finds his shoes and his fanny pack. He had become more rebellious towards his mother and the medication recently, but there’s still a voice in his head that makes it hard to completely abandon all of it, so he usually takes his fanny pack with him just to calm his nerves. Richie doesn’t say a word about it, which Eddie greatly appreciates, and hooks one of his gangly ass legs over the window sill instead. He slides out the window with ease and Eddie follows suit, careful to close the window after himself.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>The walk over to the arcade isn’t short, but it isn’t boring either. Nothing’s really boring when Richie’s around, the fact he can’t for the life of him shut up really is an up in some situations.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Once they’re at the arcade the smell of sweat and nacho cheese fills Eddie’s nose, which makes him scrunch it up. Unbeknownst to him, Richie finds it absolutely adorable.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Now, I believe you owe me ice cream?” </span>
</p><p>
  <span>Richie just smiles and slaps his arm across Eddie’s shoulder, making him half shout out an ‘ow, asshole!’ which just makes Richie laugh. Richie leads him over to the small food shop standing right next to the prize counter. While Richie goes and buys the ice cream, Eddie slips away from under his arm to look at the various prizes. He doesn’t dare look at the most expensive ones, knowing full well he’ll never win enough tickets to get them, though Richie might. In the table for the smaller prizes, something in the more expensive corner catches his eye.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>It’s a small penguin chick plushie, probably not much bigger than his palm. He needs it, needs it badly. Before he can give it much more thought Richie is shoving ice cream in his face, or near enough anyway.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Jesus Rich, you don’t have to shove it in my face, I’m not blind like you,” Eddie quips as he takes the cone from Richie’s hand and starts licking his soft serve. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Hah! Eddie gets off on a good one! You’re welcome by the way.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Richie’s eyes drift up to something on the higher shelves and Eddie follows his gaze, eyes landing on a rather impressive replica of Luke Skywalker’s lightsaber.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“You’re gonna try to get that in one afternoon?” Eddie asks, baffled, even though Richie’s good he’s not </span>
  <em>
    <span>that</span>
  </em>
  <span> good.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Oh no baby, I’ve been saving up, Carver over there has been keeping tabs on my ticket count,” Richie says as he points over to the prize counter employee sitting in the back reading a comic. He looks up at the mention of his name with a bored expression. “Tell me, Carver, you think I could get it today?”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Based on your usual turnout you probably will.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Richie bangs a hand on the prize table in a fit of energy.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“You hear that Eds? I’m getting a motherfucking lightsaber today.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Alright, though I must admit I’m surprised to hear you’ve been saving up for something.” </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Listen here, Eduardo, if there is a </span>
  <em>
    <span>lightsaber</span>
  </em>
  <span> on the line you better bet your ass that I’ll be saving up for it.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Eddie just rolls his eyes and takes another lick of his ice cream, his eyes falling back on the penguin plushie. Damn, he really fucking wants it.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“What you eyeing there Eds?” Richie asks once he’s been quiet a beat too long.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Stop calling me that, and I’m looking at that penguin plushie over there,” he says and points to the corner where the plushie stands. Richie looks over and gives it a nod of agreement.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“It’s fitting, seeing as it’s cute, though not nearly as cute as you!”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Richie reaches a hand towards Eddie’s cheek and pinches it, making obnoxious kissing noises as well. Eddie tries to bat his hand away with little success.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Ow! Asshole! Stop that! You’re gonna make me drop my ice cream!”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Richie relents but keeps looking at him with this fond smile that Eddie doesn’t know what to think of. He reaches into his pocket for his spare change so he can look at something else than Richie’s dumb smile.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“I think I’ll head over to the skee ball machines, I’m not too good at any of the other stuff,” Eddie says as he pretends to ponder his quarters.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Alright, you know where to find me if you get bored.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>They head their separate ways, Eddie still finishing his ice cream as he walks over the carpeted floor of the arcade. He notices that there aren’t too many people at the arcade today, probably because the weather is fantastic and no one sane would want to spend a day like this inside a sweaty arcade. He only sees the occasional kids who are probably only in here because their families are having afternoon snacks down the street and have allowed them to come here while they wait for their food.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Thankfully all the skee ball machines are unoccupied and Eddie throws a quarter in the middle one as he pops the last bit of the ice cream cone in his mouth. What Eddie had said earlier was true, he kind of sucks at arcade games, but he’s pretty decent at skee ball. He isn’t sure why, but he usually chalks it up to luck.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>He’s at the skee ball machines for about half an hour before he’s run out of quarters. He’d managed to rack up quite a bit of tickets and he’s hopeful that he has enough for the plushie. He makes his way over to the video game machines, not at all finding himself surprised when he sees Richie sitting in front of Street Fighter, eyes glued to the screen as he makes very exaggerated movements in time with his button mashing.  </span>
</p><p>
  <span>Eddie walks up to him, vaguely entertaining the idea of startling him as payback for earlier but deciding against it at the last second, instead throwing him a ‘hey’ as he leans against the machine and watches him play. Richie only grunts in response. Per usual he’s playing Ryu, and right now he’s fighting against Chun Li, probably already at a level in the game Eddie can’t even dream of reaching. He wins the match not long after, sitting up to brush the hair out of his face and to adjust his glasses. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Think you got enough for that plushie?” Richie asks when he sees the handful of neatly stacked tickets in Eddie’s hand.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“One can hope.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Richie turns back to the screen for the next match and Eddie looks at his watch. They have about 45 minutes before they have to leave, or until Eddie has to leave anyway. Richie could stay and rack up more tickets but Eddie knows he’ll walk him home, if only for their false hope that they have strength in numbers. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>Richie wins a few games before actually giving the time any mind and then decides he has time for a few more, all of which he wins as well.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Do you never get bored of this game?” Eddie asks him as he waits for his long string of tickets as they get spit out.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“No not really, each match is always very different even though the game is the same.” </span>
</p><p>
  <span>Eddie is slightly surprised by Richie’s sincere and analogical answer, something he doesn’t get often from the kid they all call ‘Trashmouth’ but he doesn’t comment on it. When the machine is finally done spitting out tickets Richie picks them up off the floor in a messy bundle, a big contrast to Eddie’s small neat stack. They walk back to the prize counter where Carver takes their tickets and deposits them in the counting machines, Eddie’s total coming out sooner than Richie’s. He’d gotten 97 tickets, and when he looks over at the plushie he realizes that he’s 8 tickets short. His smile falters as he realizes it.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“You get enough?” Richie asks him, though he no doubt knows the answer already from just looking at him.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“No,” Eddie replies, sulking as he looks at the other prizes in the table, none of which catch his eye. “I’m 8 short…”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>The machine finishes counting Richie’s tickets and Carver announces that he’s got a little over what he needed for his ultimate prize. Eddie’s heart stings a little bit at the thought that he couldn’t even get enough tickets for a tiny plushie while Richie will be getting a lightsaber.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Give eight of mine to Eddie,” Richie says suddenly.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Really?” Carver asks, surprised, “then you’ll be a few short yourself.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“That’s alright.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Eddie is totally taken aback by this executive decision, he would’ve never thought that Richie would give up getting a lightsaber for something as small as this. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“What? Richie no, get your lightsaber, it’s fine!” Eddie tries to insist but Richie won’t have it.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Nah man, I want you to have that plushie, I’ll just get the lightsaber tomorrow, what’s one more day anyway?”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Eddie looks at him questioningly, not really sure if it’s alright. Richie just nods, both at him and Carver, who moves to take the plushie out of the table. Once it’s in Eddie’s hands he starts smiling like an idiot, the happiness this plushie gives him is ridiculous. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Thanks Rich.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“You’re welcome Spaghetti, now I do believe I promised you’d be back home before dinner so we should probably get going. See you tomorrow Carver!”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Carver throws back a halfhearted ‘see ya’ as he makes his way back to his chair in the back and Richie and Eddie make their way back towards the entrance. Once out in the sun Eddie holds the plushie up towards the sky like a baby. Richie smiles at him fondly.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“What are you gonna name it?”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“I don’t know.” Eddie thinks it over for a second. “I think I’ll call him Trashmouth.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Richie gapes at him, slightly happy and a tiny bit offended.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“You’re replacing me with a penguin plushie? ”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Yea, and I already like him more than you!”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“You are cruel Eds!”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Richie leaps at him, trying to get him into a friendly headlock but Eddie manages to dodge it, starting to sprint down the street laughing, Richie right on his heels, laughing as well. Richie may have longer legs but Eddie is still a faster runner, making it to the end of his street before Richie does, though they were yelling at each other the whole way there. As he’s catching his breath Richie half crashes into him, both of them stumbling before regaining their balance. Richie leans on Eddie’s shoulder, looking up at the sky as he breathes. Eddie looks up at him, hair swaying in the breeze and the sun illuminating his skin. Eddie’s breath catches in his throat and he can feel his cheeks start to heat up so he looks away quickly, down the street to his house. He dreads going home, even though he usually dreads hanging out with Richie even more, though maybe it’s because deep down he always knows he’ll end up having a good time with him.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Guess we better go,” Richie sighs, “I’ll help you climb up.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>He hooks his hand around Eddie’s shoulders and they make their way towards the house, sneaking around to the back.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Can you hold him for me while I climb up? I don’t want him to tear or something.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Eddie hands Trashmouth over to the original Trashmouth, who glares at the penguin but doesn’t say anything about it. He puts it gently down into the grass before helping Eddie up onto the porch roof. Eddie isn’t exactly tiny, but he’s small enough for even all-bones Richie to lift up.</span>
  <span><br/>
</span>
  <span>“Okay, now throw him to me,” Eddie says once he’s secured himself on the roof. Richie picks the plushie up and glares at him one more time, earning him a small laugh from Eddie. He tosses it up and Eddie barely catches it without falling back down. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Dude, you are seriously a bad thrower.”</span>
  <span><br/>
</span>
  <span>“That’s why I’m not on the football team, Spaghetti.”</span>
  <span><br/>
</span>
  <span>They look at each other for a moment, a moment too long in Eddie’s opinion as he feels his heart speed up and his throat clamming up. He looks away once he feels his cheeks start to heat up too.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Anyway, thanks for dragging me out of the house, even if it was only to go somewhere even sweatier.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“No problem Eds,” Richie replies with a wide smile, “you know you can always hit me up if you’re bored or just, need to get out.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Thanks, Richie, I’ll see you soon okay?”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Yeah, okay. Have a good night Eddie.” </span>
</p><p>
  <span>Eddie flashes him a small smile before turning around and heading for his window. Once inside he turns to the window to close it and sees Richie still standing there. He waves to him with a smile before closing the window. He sets the plushie down on his bedside table before flopping onto his bed, trying to get his heart to calm down. This couldn’t be normal, but it wasn’t like he could tell his mom about it, she’d freak out and diagnose with some other bullshit problem. No, he had to keep this to himself.</span>
  <span><br/>
</span>
  <span>After dinner he tries to continue reading his book with not much progress, only managing about 5 pages before deciding to just go to bed. It’s not that he’s tired, he just can’t concentrate.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>As he lies down in bed, after thoroughly brushing his teeth, he reaches for the plushie and looks at it. He had really wanted it earlier in the day, but now it means so much more to him than just something cute he saw. He cuddles the plushie to his chest and looks up at the ceiling. Hanging out with Richie today hadn’t been so bad. He’d spent so much time worrying about the next time he’d see him, but in the end it just turned out to be fun.</span>
  <span><br/>
</span>
  <span>Eddie still doesn’t have a word for what’s going on, but he at least sleeps well that night with Trashmouth by his side.</span>
</p><p>
  <span><br/>
</span>
  <span>-----</span>
  <span><br/>
<br/>
</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Richie watches as Eddie disappears further into his room, and stands there for a moment before sneaking back out of Mrs. Kaspbrak’s garden.</span>
  <span><br/>
</span>
  <span>Richie decides to go to the clubhouse, even though he should be going home for dinner. He just feels like he needs a little time for himself, away from pestering parents and older sisters. And friends too, he knows Ben’s gone home at this point so he should have the clubhouse to himself.<br/>
<br/>
</span>
  <span>The air is still warm with the residual heat of the day but Richie still grabs the wool blanket they have on hand before fishing out the community Walkman and his melancholy playlist from their music box. He puts the headphones on and starts the music before wrapping himself in the blanket and plopping down into the hammock.<br/>
</span>
  <span><br/>
</span>
  <span>During moments like these, Richie’s mind can’t help but wander to scenarios he knows can never happen. But that doesn’t stop him from daydreaming. These are the only moments he allows himself to daydream about this, because he fears someone will figure him out if he’s not alone.<br/>
</span>
  <span><br/>
</span>
  <span>He’s not sure how much time he spent laying in the hammock, but when he emerges from the clubhouse it’s gotten decently dark outside. The day is cooling down and Richie hugs himself as he walks back home, not in any kind of hurry as he knows his parents aren’t too worried about him staying out so late.<br/>
</span>
  <span><br/>
</span>
  <span>When he gets home, he lets his parents know that he’s still alive before heading up to bed. There he starts daydreaming again, before drifting off to sleep.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>The next day he’s right back at the arcade, determined to get that lightsaber for once and for all. It’s pretty early, and it’s also a Monday, so there aren’t that many people there besides himself and Carver. He gets more tickets than he needs to, he wants to give Eddie something else, even though he doesn’t know what yet.<br/>
</span>
  <span><br/>
</span>
  <span>Carver jumps as he slams his pile of tickets on the counter, seeing as he was very much engrossed in the comic he’s reading today, looks like one of the new Iron Man comics to Richie’s trained eyes.</span>
  <span><br/>
</span>
  <span><br/>
“Today is the day Carver, that lightsaber will now be mine!”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Carver huffs as he picks up the tickets and feeds them into the counting machine. As the machine counts the small stack, Richie looks over the table in hopes of finding something for Eddie. He soon spots packs of animal stickers laying in one of the corners.<br/>
</span>
  <span><br/>
</span>
  <span>“You’ve got an excess of 103 tickets if you also want something else as well,” Carver says as the machine finishes counting. Carver moves towards the back to grab a step ladder so he can get the lightsaber box down.<br/>
</span>
  <span><br/>
</span>
  <span>With 103 tickets, Richie can have four packs of stickers, coincidentally there are four different types; pandas, giraffes, foxes, and funnily enough, penguins.<br/>
</span>
  <span><br/>
</span>
  <span>“I’ll take one of each of those sticker packs,” he says as Carver reemerges with the ladder. He only nods in his direction before setting up the ladder and climbing up. He carefully grabs the box and climbs down the ladder again, placing the box on the counter. Richie’s eyes light up with excitement and a grin breaks out on his face, a grin Eddie would call stupid, probably.<br/>
</span>
  <span><br/>
</span>
  <span>“Holy shit dude, this is amazing! Can I open it here?” Richie asks, practically bouncing in place.<br/>
</span>
  <span><br/>
</span>
  <span>“Sure, I can throw out the box for you too.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Richie doesn’t need to hear that twice and immediately starts tearing up the box. Carver grabs the four sticker packs in the meantime.<br/>
</span>
  <span><br/>
</span>
  <span>“Are you gonna put the stickers on the lightsaber?” Carver asks, not really out of curiosity, but more out of a need to just say something to fill the weird silence as Richie goes ham on the box.<br/>
</span>
  <span><br/>
</span>
  <span>“No, they’re for Eddie.”</span>
  <span><br/>
</span>
  <span><br/>
Richie answers as if it’s the most obvious answer in the world, which, honestly it should be from what Carver had been putting together over the last few days of being around Richie so much, birds of a feather flock together after all.<br/>
</span>
  <span><br/>
</span>
  <span>Richie finally manages to free the lightsaber from the box and audibly gasps as it comes to life at the press of a button, that iconic sound reaching his ears and tingling his nerd brain.</span>
  <span><br/>
</span>
  <span><br/>
“Oh fuck yes! This is so cool! Are you seeing this??”</span>
  <span><br/>
</span>
  <span><br/>
He does a few, bad lightsaber moves and then giggles to himself in glee. </span>
  <span><br/>
</span>
  <span><br/>
“Oh my god I have to show this to Eddie! Holy shit. I’ll see you later Carver!”</span>
  <span><br/>
</span>
  <span><br/>
“Richie!” Carver yells after him.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“What?”<br/>
</span>
  <span><br/>
</span>
  <span>“The stickers?”<br/>
</span>
  <span><br/>
</span>
  <span>“Oh shit right, thanks!”<br/>
</span>
  <span><br/>
</span>
  <span>As he’s reaching to grab the stickers from Carver’s hand, Carver grabs his hand. Richie looks up at him, confusion and anxiety very apparent in his eyes, Carver doesn’t blame him.</span>
  <span><br/>
</span>
  <span><br/>
“You’re not alone.” Carver says it with such ease, as if it’s not the most cryptic shit he could have said.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“What? What are you talking about?” Richie is more confused than anxious now, but the anxiety has moved over to other things.</span>
  <span><br/>
</span>
  <span><br/>
“I see the way you look at him, the way you act with him, and I just want you to know that you’re not alone. This place is a fucking shit hole, and I know you know people have to stick together, you can always come in here okay?”<br/>
</span>
  <span><br/>
</span>
  <span>Carver let’s go of his hand, and all Richie can do is stare. This, was certainly not something he was expecting today. Hell, this was something he never would have expected. He doesn’t know how to process this at the moment so he just frantically searches Carver’s eyes for any sign of joking or insincerity but he can’t find any.<br/>
</span>
  <span><br/>
</span>
  <span>“I hope he likes the stickers,” Carver says, as if he didn’t just shatter Richie’s view of reality.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Thanks…”<br/>
</span>
  <span><br/>
</span>
  <span>Richie turns around slowly, eyebrows furrowed and mind a little bit hazy. As he exits all he can think is that he'll just have to show Eddie the lightsaber tomorrow, he's having too much of a crisis at the moment to be goofy.</span><br/>
<span><br/>
</span>
  <span>Carver smiles to himself as he watches Richie walk out the door, hoping the world might be kind enough one day for them to live as themselves, and kind of wishing for Richie’s daydreams to come true.</span>
</p>
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